Oscar Music Nominations

Stop The Presses!

Paul GreinJanuary 10, 2013

“Skyfall,” which Adele co-wrote and recorded for the James Bond movie of the same name, and “Suddenly,” which Hugh Jackman performs in the hit movie version of Les Miserables, are the leading Oscar contenders for Best Song. Both songs are also nominated for Golden Globes in the top song category.

The other nominees for Best Song are “Pi’s Lullaby” from Life Of Pi (music by Mychael Danna, lyrics by Bombay Jayashri), “Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from Ted (music by Walter Murphy, lyric by Seth MacFarlane) and “Before My Time” from Chasing Ice (music and lyrics by Josh Ralph).

MacFarlane, who has won two Emmys for his work on Family Guy, will host this year’s Oscars. His collaborator, Walter Murphy, had a #1 hit on the Hot 100 in 1976 with “A Fifth Of Beethoven,” a disco treatment of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Norah Jones performs “Everybody Needs A Best Friend” on the Ted soundtrack.

This year’s three other Golden Globe nominees were passed over for Oscar nominations: “For You” from Act Of Valor (by Keith Urban and Monty Powell), “Not Running Anymore” from Stand Up Guys (by Jon Bon Jovi) and “Safe & Sound” from The Hunger Games (by Taylor Swift, the members of The Civil Wars and T Bone Burnett). (The latter song wasn’t on the list of 75 songs that were in contention for Oscar nominations. The only song from The Hunger Games that was in the running was “Abraham’s Daughter,” which Burnett co-wrote with the members of Arcade Fire.)

Also passed over for Best Song: “Learn Me Write” from Brave, which was written and recorded by Mumford & Sons.

“Suddenly” is a new song which Claude-Michel Schonberg, Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil added to their score for Les Miserables. The soundtrack rises to #1 on The Billboard 200 this week. It’s the first soundtrack to a movie that originated as a Broadway show to top the chart since Mamma Mia! in 2008.

Les Miz received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Hugh Jackman and Best Supporting Actress for Anne Hathaway, whose rendition of the show’s most famous song, “I Dreamed A Dream,” is listed on the current Hot 100.

“Skyfall” is the fourth Bond theme to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Song. It follows “Live And Let Die,” which Paul and Linda McCartney wrote for the 1973 movie of the same name; “Nobody Does It Better,” which Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager wrote for the 1977 movie The Spy Who Loved Me; and “For Your Eyes Only,” which Bill Conti and Michael (“Mick”) Leeson wrote for the 1981 movie of the same name.

(There’s one more if you count the 1967 spoof Casino Royale as a Bond film. The movie wasn’t overseen by Eon Productions, and thus isn’t usually considered an official Bond film. “The Look Of Love,” which Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote for that film, was a Best Song nominee.)

“Skyfall” is vying to become the first Bond song to actually win an Oscar. The producers of this year’s Oscar telecast have already announced that the show will feature a 50th anniversary salute to the Bond franchise.

Adele co-wrote “Skyfall” with Paul Epworth, with whom she collaborated on “Rolling In The Deep.” That song won a Grammy last year as Song of the Year. If “Skyfall” wins the Oscar, Adele will become only the third woman to win both an Oscar for Best Song and a Grammy for Song of the Year. She would follow Marilyn Bergman (who won both awards for co-writing “The Way We Were”) and Barbra Streisand (who won both awards for co-writing “Love Theme From ‘A Star Is Born’ (Evergreen).”

These are the first Best Song nominations for the songwriters of all five nominated songs. This is the first time in three years that the Oscars have had five Best Song finalists. There were just two last year, which many thought showed disrespect to the storied tradition of film music.

Skyfall and Life Of Pi are also nominated in the category of Best Score.

The nomination for Mychael Danna’s score for Life Of Pi makes Danna the only individual to receive two Oscar nominations for music this year.

Thomas Newman’s score for Skyfall is the second from a Bond film to receive an Oscar nomination. The first was Marvin Hamlisch’s 1977 score for The Spy Who Loved Me.

John Williams score for Lincoln is his 43rd to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Score. This extends his lead as the composer with the most nominations in that category in Oscar history. He has won five times in the category. Four of those awards have been for previous collaborations with Lincoln director Steven Spielberg: Jaws, Star Wars, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Schindler’s List.

The other nominees for Best Score are Dario Marianelli for Anna Karenina and Alexandre Desplat for Argo.

This is the 10th Best Score nomination for Newman (who has never won), the fifth for Desplat (who has never won), the third for Marianelli (who won for 2007’s Atonement) and the first for Danna.

Passed over for Best Score: Hans Zimmer’s score for The Dark Knight Rises (which is nominated for a Grammy) and Cloud Atlas by Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil (which is nominated for a Golden Globe).